[Spoiler] Suboptimal's Next Attempt at Lurker Frustration

[suboptimal]

Turn 112

The big question this turn is whether or not Yerevan has gotten its walls up. If it didn’t the city will be mine this turn. If it did, well, it’s going to take longer than this turn. There are no notifications regarding my units at Yerevan being attacked.




However, there’s another issue. Yerevan has declared war on Vilnius and Kaiser (the crossed swords). Looks like Canada grabbed suzerainty of the city-state. They’ve also sent a redlined horseman to investigate. I also have a deal notification from Ichabod. Our borders closed last turn. No open borders but elephants for marble. I accept. I’ll find out when he gets back to Nora Batty if he’s got Cartography completed or if he’ll ask for open borders again. That does mean my scout is taking the long way around. I’ve also got a Great Person waiting for me.




Hello, Boudica. She appears in Truly. On deck is Æthelflæd and this time around I’ll make sure to get the pronouns straight. She’ll be mine in 60 turns for now, less than 40 once the armory completes. Her retirement benefit is not useful (+2 loyalty in a city). Speaking of retirement benefits I will likely hold onto Boudica while I’ve got horses and swords and hope that a naval barbarian camp with caravels shows up. On to the turn.

At Yerevan I attack first with the healthier of the two horsemen. That unit gets a promotion and the caravel takes the city. The districts are not pillaged and the Harbor converts to a Royal Navy Dockyard. I keep the city and immediately check loyalty. It’s at -8.5 for now. I move Magnus over from Marina and start the 15-turn repair on the monument. I also rename the city Pearl. I also get a look at Canadian forces in the area. They’re arranged in a blockade line from Kings to Bruins, using the mountain to fill the gap. Two horses, a sword and a pike, all heavily damaged. As can be seen above the gap between Bruins and the mountain has been filled so Canada appears to be closing up the gaps in their borders and fortifying the rest.

I move Boudica to Smiler for the time being to put her in the neighborhood but out of sight. I also move the western horse at Pearl into the city to heal. Rajendra Chola stays outside the city for the time being. I move a citizen from the 5 floodplain to the incense for a little added production (only 0.5 per turn) but that cuts the monument repair down to 10 turns. Loyalty is not a big concern since Smiler’s growth in two turns should provide enough pressure to make the city go positive. I also realize by putting Boudica in Smiler that I can’t move the builder through this turn. Nearby, the remaining warrior at Marina upgrades to a swordsman. Next turn I’ll bring a swordsman and Boudica towards Pearl to reinforce the city a bit more.

Over at Cleggy the builder puts down a pasture. A little more production but more importantly another housing. I send Cleggy’s caravel towards the east coast – I’m going to patrol with it (using its sight range of 4) to keep an eye on things. Woden can send units across the sea and might get frisky. I also bring Howard’s galley east since there’s another one coming from Egypt’s shores.

Reposition a chariot and a builder. Move the scout and, oh, looky..an Egyptian settler:




My scout is getting bottled in quickly. I’ll be curious to see what the city’s loyalty looks like once it’s founded.

The Great Engineer race has become crowded:

Me: 9 @ 4/turn, rising to 6/turn in two turns
Egypt: 53 @ 4/turn
Phoenicia: 17 @ 4/turn
Brazil: 6 @ 6/turn

Ah yes...indecision returns. Of the three I’d actually find Bi Sheng the most useful – he’d permit extra districts for Entertainment Complexes to boost Theater Squares, and they come with amenities to boot and for less production. I also get to build the first EC at a discount. James of St. George would give me four charges for walls (assuming the MaH completes) and that would be quite helpful indeed. However, two EC’s and three Theater Squares in the area north of Foggy (plus one from Truly by Foggy’s RND) would generate a pile of and great people.

Barring anyone running any projects or otherwise increasing GEP generation Kaiser will get the first GE pick on turn 128. At that point in time I will have 101 GEP and Ichabod would have 102. I’ll have Cleggy put a project at 1 turn from completion for Turn 128. If Bi Sheng is up I’ll complete the project. If James of St. George is up I’ll hold the project for later and gladly take Bi Sheng.

As for completing the Mausoleum I’ll need to Magnuschop a jungle and two forests (buying one) to get it done. That’ll clear out land on the coast for a farm triangle though I’ll have the builder put down one farm and a pasture and chop overflow will go into walls. I’ll get builders out of Cleggy & Foggy (two, maybe three total) while in Serfdom. It does mean that I’ll need to move Magnus to Aunti Wainwright next turn, which will require moving Amani from Venice to maintain loyalty at Pearl. I’ll use my two remaining envoys to replace her to keep my income up.

At Exploration I’ll slot Conscription, Naval Infrastructure, Serfdom, Merchant Confederation, Professional Army and something else (don’t know what, yet). I’ll get Civil Service to one turn and then put turns into Humanism while I get out the remaining builders. Civil Service will unslot Serfdom and I’ll keep Theology in my pocket for an emergency change if needed.

[suboptimal]

Turn 113

Load the save, notifications are clear. Only build of note is another chariot, the third of four. Time to shuffle some things around. Magnus to Auntie Wainwright, Amani and Boudica to Pearl, two envoys to Venice. Rajendra Chola moves to Pearl and transfers to Cleggy – he’ll join the caravel on picket duty. Foggy starts the last chariot; next up there is a builder for Serfdom. Warriors at Cleggy and Truly upgrade and that’s all the warriors done. I’ll accumulate for a bit and then consider galley upgrades. I also should try to get some more archers out before Machinery completes. Cleggy’s build queue is free after next turn and I can build archers there at two turns each before I need to start considering the prebuild on that engineering project.

I send the just-completed chariot to join its buddy towards Marina. The last one out will stay local to the capital. Builder at Foggy puts in a plantation. Builder at Cleggy moves to the site of the volcanic mine. Builder at Smiler heads for Pearl. Horseman promotes to Caparison, almost fully healing. I move the sword through Smiler and notice that it’s got 3/2 movement points. I guess moving Boudica first didn’t cause an MP reset. Good to know but still a bit loopy. Reposition some naval units. Over at Venice I go to move my scout but…




I’m going to take that as Ichabod telling Kaiser “Yeah, you don’t want to do that”. I move southeast to get out of the way. I’ll go between Blackhawks and Venice to reach the coast.

Went through the diplo screens and see that Canada has an alliance with Ichabod. Interesting.

[suboptimal]

Turn 114

Yesterday the game loaded up and ran very poorly despite no other issues with things on my computer. It ran fine two days ago. Thought I might have figured out a cause but that’s not it – my computer is running very slowly. It’s also 5-6 years old, so maybe time for a new one. I’ve regained some performance (not much) by turning off some of the graphical bells and whistles.

Military Tactics is complete. The question is what tech next? I’ve previously stated that shipyards are a waypoint goal (or used words to that effect) but my cities aren’t in a position to build them yet. Castles and Machinery give me access to new units but I’ve got eurekas pending on both of them (and a few more archers to build for upgrades). Stirrups needs to wait a turn for Foggy’s last chariot to complete. There’s also Square Rigging but I’d want some quadriremes out for that...or would I? With everything else to upgrade Cleggy could build Frigates in four turns with Press Gangs slotted. I’ll dump the overflow into Square Rigging and re-evaluate next turn.

I’ve got a notification that barbarians have moved into the area. This time they’re over here:




I think I’ll send the quadrireme over while the swordsman in Nora Batty heals up some more. It’ll get its first promotion out of the deal too. I also think I’ll send the caravel down for a look just in case it’s a naval camp. If it is, Boudica will get involved (and that would be sweet). Ichabod also has proposed a deal:




If there’s a hidden message here I’m not sure I get it. He’s already gotten one ivory off me I thought (or did I not accept that trade last turn?) I take the trade.

Up at Cleggy the workshop is complete. Builder puts down a volcanic mine and the city’s yield is now 38 per turn. I open its build queue and put in two archers, two builders, a library and walls, all will be 2-3 turn builds depending on how the overflow works out. At some point I’ll interrupt the queue to put in the IZ logistics project. Naval units continue repositioning. Kaiser’s turned his galley around as he didn’t proceed east of Howard. Interesting.

Over at Pearl it appears that Canada has broken up its defensive line a bit, with the southern horsemen now in Kings territory. I bring the swordsman down for backup and move the fully healed horseman to the Holy Site for a look-see. Nothing new or interesting so I move out to the copper:




Looks like Canada is moving towards the front again. Wonder if Kaiser retreated. I’ll keep the caravel stationed here until the walls go in. Smiler has grown to 3 population so the city’s loyalty is now at a +1.8 per turn. Next turn I’ll plantation the incense, then I’ll repair the wall and then buy the forest for a wall chop. The harvest will get 77/80 and the city will pause the monument to complete the walls. The city also has me 58 turns from getting the last Great Prophet.

It looks like Egypt didn’t settle their intended city. Ichabod has moved forces north out of Venice. I take the opportunity to go south towards the coast. I’ll be able to embark the scout the turn after next.

My recent upgrade spree has accomplished its goal, even though I’m not quite done yet. I’m now second in milpower at 646. Woden is first at 812, Ichabod third at 586 and Kaiser and Canada round out the bottom at 508 and 488. Of course, I’ve got about 225 of that in ships (three galleys + two caravels + one quadrireme) but that’s OK. I should appear sufficiently spiky to all onlookers.

The display shows that the are will likely roll in 25 turns. I need ten era points to get a normal age. I think I’ve got enough without having to do anything crazy. I’ll get four from the Mausoleum, three from Exploration (1 from the civic, two from the government), one for the barbarian camp, one for Truly (it hits 10 population next turn) and I’ll be getting two, maybe three, great people (one admiral, one engineer and possibly one writer).

Kaiser founded his religion this past turn as well. I never did summarize Woden’s when he founded, so here’s the current religious picture:

Ichabod: Catholocism, Work Ethic, Tithe, Defender of the Faith
Woden: Judaism, Choral Music, Pilgrimage
Kasier: The Orville, Feed the World, Scripture

[suboptimal]

Turn 115

Load up the game, still have the stuttering issues. I made some tweaks to my mapped network drive settings (we have a networked storage device for backups, pictures and general files) to speed up file access in case the game has file I/O issues but that doesn’t seem to have helped. There was a Steam client update and that didn’t do anything. I was hoping there was an issue with the steam client that was slowing things down. Guess not. Work is slow, guess I’ll start laptop shopping tomorrow.

Open the save to Truly hitting 10 population and earning era score for that. Civil Service is boosted as well. Unfortunately the population is forced to work a 3 marsh for the time being as that’s the only tile available to it. The city hits the 50% housing cap mark and will take 37 turns to grow to 11 population. That’ll get sped up a little bit once the Dam is built (and I acquire a tile or two up at Kilimanjaro).

The last chariot at Foggy is out. It starts a builder and the existing one puts down a mine and retires. Chariot moves next to the other one between here and Truly and fortifies. I move the galley at Cleggy to the northeastern extent of the city’s borders. I’ll upgrade this one later. Cleggy will have so much overflow next turn that it’ll get the next archer done in one turn. Caravel takes a look at the barbarian camp, does not find a caravel. Quadrireme continues sailing for the camp. Sword at Nora Batty will depart next turn.

Over at Pearl things are getting crowded:




Dunno if Canada is planning on getting frisky with me or not. I back the horse to the Holy Site. They’ve got to denounce before declaring so I’ll have five turns’ notice. Caravel stands pat. The other horse moves to the incense, the sword moves into the city and fortifies and the builder puts down the incense plantation. Pearl starts working that immediately, I get a little more and a few more amenities. The city switches the build queue to walls. I’ll put two turns into them while the builder repairs the farm and moves to the forest, then go back to the monument. Buying the forest is worth it as it’s 110 & a builder chop for walls.

Scout out west makes it to open shoreline and will embark next turn. Kaiser settled his city anyway and has immediately started walls. He’s got a governor in there and if I had to guess that’d be Magnus – I expect the walls to get chopped in about four turns.




Internationally, Woden is saving a pile of - he’s got 1143 in hand as of my turn. Some have come close (800’s) but he’s the first to hit four digits. Ichabod’s religion score went down two – looks like a city of his converted away from Catholicism.

Before ending the turn I switch techs to Stirrups. I’m going to finish Machinery after that and then head for Gunpowder. As for the archers at Cleggy I’m going to put one in Truly (so I can fogbust with the swordsman) and send the other to either Pearl or Marina for an eventual crossbow upgrade.

[suboptimal]

Turn 116

Stirrups is complete, Machinery is boosted. I start Gunpowder. I’ll come back and finish Machinery next turn since I want a second archer built first. Exploration is done, start Civil Service, time for some changes. Change government to Merchant Republic. Conscription, Naval Infrastructure, Serfdom, Merchant Confederation and Professional Army are 5/6 policies. What to take for #6? I am not quite ready for a wall building spree, so no Limes. I’m also not building settlers (yet) so I’ll hold off on Colonization. Aesthetics gets me 4 right now, Natural Philosophy is worth 8 and Caravansaries is worth 8. For the time being I go with Natural Philosophy.

Take a look around, don’t see anything too concerning. Repair Pearl’s farm and send Cleggy’s new archer in this direction. Nora Batty’s swordsman heads for the barbarian camp, the quad will be there (with Chola) in two turns. The naval picket is largely set up though I don’t have edge-to-edge visibility. At some point I’ll need to establish one west of Howard. I have the galley at Cleggy available for this purpose and enough gold to upgrade. However, I’ve got two tile purchases coming up - second ring woods at both Auntie Wainwright and Pearl, both of which will happen next turn at 115 each. I do send the galley back towards Howard, though, and will upgrade it there.

My DoF with Icabod has run its course. Since it wouldn’t have expired on his turn he couldn’t reoffer it. I do so and will see what he does. I also notice that Brazil ran a project to snag Isidore and Bi Sheng is up next. Phoenicia also ran a project to try to get Isidore and is late. That complicates things a bit. A project now yields 66 GEP and completes in three turns. Regardless of whether I star the project this turn or next, Woden and I will both hit the GEP threshold at the same time (T121). However, I go first in turn order so should get the first pick. And here comes more waffling...

What was I trying to do with Bi Sheng? This:




For this to work I need to get Cleggy to 13 population or have an extra district slot. That’ll be difficult because Cleggy is short on housing (has 10 now). I’d also need Foggy to get to 10 population before its own Theater Square can go down. That’ll be helped when I complete the Dam since that’ll give me housing. If I don’t get Bi Sheng then one of Cleggy’s districts disappears from the pinmap. It’d be the Entertainment Complex since I’d want the Theater Square for great work generation. However, there is another way:




Not as much culture but if Cleggy reached 13 population I could build the Entertainment Complex in the gap between the Theater Squares or north of the eastern cluster. I also realized after taking the screenshot that swapping the positions of Truly’s two districts is actually better as the Theater Square gets an extra adjacency. This also saves a hill for Foggy’s production, boosts the IZ at Cleggy and lets me go after James of St. George.

Bi Sheng would essentially get me 4-5 and an extra amenity or two. With James of St. George I could get two levels of walls into Howard, Auntie Wainwright, Smiler and somewhere else (a new city, Foggy? Truly?) and that’s a value of 1200. Foggy, Truly, Cleggy and Compo have enough to hard-build walls with Limes in a reasonable time frame. Call that a new plan.

Civil Service completes in four turns and then I’ll do Guilds. Once that completes I’ll put in Colonization and get some settlers out for the east coast (one each out of Foggy and Cleggy; I’ll eat the pop loss at Cleggy). For techs it’s Machinery → Gunpowder → Castles → Mass Production → Square Rigging. I don’t intend on building & upgrading quadriremes to get a couple of frigates out, simply because Cleggy + Press Gangs can build them in four turns. It’d take three turns to accumulate the gold for one upgrade under Professional Army. I can spend the gold elsewhere and get them out almost as fast.

[suboptimal]

Turn 117

Open the game to a crapton of war decs. Woden declared on Ichabod, Canada declared on Woden, Venice declared on Woden and Kaiser, Vilnius declared on Venice. Then there’s the peace notifications – Venice made peace with everyone. WTH is going on around here and in what sequence? Check the city-states – Venice is shown to be at war with Phoenicia and Egypt. Vilnius is at war with Canada and Brazil. Geneva is at war with no one. The last is a diplo notification – Ichabod has accepted my DoF.

Cleggy finishes the second archer and starts the logistics project. Four turns to completion. Nora Batty’s builder is also complete, so time to buy some tiles. Now, I was going to make two tile purchases. However, I don’t need to make the one at Nora Batty for two turns – I need to connect Nora to Auntie Wainwright so the former’s forest is third ring to Auntie Wainwright for the chop. My income will support that. I need to buy the forest at Pearl since that’s getting chopped for walls next turn. I do that and switch the city back to its monument build. Nora Batty could start walls but if the engineer breaks right that’s sorted. I start a trader, should be 9 turns to completion. Units move towards that barbarian camp. I shift the embarked units and then contemplate my navy.

Here’s what I know. I’ve got a Phoenician caravel somewhere south of Pearl. There’s another one somewhere on the west/northwest coast of the landmass and there’s a quadrireme around. That’s the sum total of Phoenicia’s navy (as far as I can tell). The Woden-Kaiser axis is more threatening than the Ichabod-Canada axis, just because of the relative lack of power of Canada.

I recall the eastern galleys to Cleggy and Nora Batty. The one near Howard upgrades to a caravel now and Artemsia joins in formation. I’m going to use the caravels at Howard, Pearl and the mid-ocean to scout out Woden’s caravels and the status of both ends of the northern passage. Once I get the other two upgraded I’ll figure out if I’ll lend naval support (via pillaging and taking out naval units) or sit tight. After giving things some thought I switch off Gunpowder and start Machinery. I’ll go Machinery → Gunpowder and then figure out my next move. I’m now also beelining Mercantilism for Sea Dogs, which happens to go right through Humanism. I’ll also be picking up Magellan in four turns. If Yi Sun-Sin (retire for 1 coal and an ironclad) or Francis Drake (retire for a Privateer with 1 promotion level and military gets +50% reward for plundering) I think I’ll need to pick both of those up.

There is a strong incentive here to remain neutral. No one except Canada has a land boundary with me and I believe I currently have naval superiority (if you can call it that). None of the combatants are likely to set up an amphibious assault because they’ve got to worry about the others ground-pounding. This might actually be a good time to sit back, continue buildering up and allow the war to consume everyone else for a little bit. For the time being I am not going to further secure my immediate border with a DoF to Canada. Renewal of the DoF with Brazil could be considered status quo and not raise any alarms with Woden & Kaiser. A DoF with Canada would put them on higher alert than I want right now. I do send a 1:1 gold deal to Canada to signal no ill intent. If I take any of their cities it’ll be via loyalty, not weaponry.

Woden has dumped all his cash, likely into upgrades. That should have shown up in his milpower this past turn but he’s only up 50 or so.

When Civil Service completes I may swap out Merchant Confederation for Charasmatic Leader. I’m currently 23 turns from two natural envoys and the policy would speed that up to 16 turns. Envoys into Geneva and Vilnius would net me 4 and about 16 (if I grab suzerainty of Geneva). I have to consider completing Theology “now” for its envoy as that would speed one of the two bonuses.

[suboptimal]

Turn 118

Open the turn to a flood on the Parana River. That’s at Ichabod’s newish coastal city by Fez – it’s lost 179/200 wall damage. My governors have established at their new locations and Canada has rejected my 1-for-1 gold deal. OK, I’ll consider them to be on not friendly footing for the time being. If they’d like me to split the difference with Egypt once I get some better units that could be arranged. However, my intended non-combatant status remains for the time being.

Compo’s Aqueduct has completed, netting the city 2 housing and 2. The city lacks a monument and as a 4-turn build for 2 that’s a good thing to spend it on. I’ll eventually build a workshop here but that can wait a bit – the culture is more useful right now.

Over at Pearl I switch production back over to walls and chop the forest for 79. Walls are complete and the city is now two turns from completing its monument. I send the caravel south to find the Phoenician ship and don’t yet locate it. There’s a possibility that with the war going on that it has gone through Penguins, though with the city’s defense rating (38) a caravel could likely capture or destroy the city. My other units at Pearl sit tight. I think I might buy a granary here as that’d be better than the 28 turns spent building it. It would let me grow the city a bit more, which in turn helps loyalty and makes it a bit more useful.

My naval recall continues. I learn that it appears that Ichabod doesn’t have Cartography – his galley remains on the coast and has reversed course from Nora Batty, once again heading east. Northeastern caravel finds the bay in front of the Northern Passage to be empty. Caravel at Howard departs with Artemsia in tow and likewise finds nothing yet. Quadrireme shoots the barbarian camp, earning a promotion. Swordsman is two turns out. Other unit relocation continues unimpeded. I buy the second ring forest at Auntie Wainwright now since the cost is going up with Machinery’s completion next turn. I also swap over the now-third ring forest because I’ll forget to do that before the chop next turn.

Brazil recently completed a second Theater District as Ichabod is now making 2 GP per turn of all three types. I’ll be making 4 effective the turn after next but it won’t be enough to get a Great Writer before him. I also won’t be able to accumulate enough faith for a purchase there so it’s likely the next Great Writer will be a while longer (15 turns by my count). I also see that Woden’s making 4GGP per turn. He’s got two cities with Encampments and only 22 points so unless he rushed barracks in both of them he’s likely running a policy. Not going to sweat that too much right now. He has also reached exactly 1000 milpower. He’s reached the column of the tech tree with Square Rigging and Metal Casting but given his lack of quadriremes I don’t think he’s been making frigates. (famous last words? ) Canada is rebuilding their Encampment at Bruins as well. They’ve also hit zero income as their gold total has not changed from last turn. Kaiser, meanwhile, has been...backfilling? Fowardsettling?




Edfu is in negative loyalty (-4.4) so I wonder what Kaiser’s plan is for that city. It all looks like cannon fodder for Brazil unless Woden’s tied up Ichabod along their border.

[suboptimal]

Turn 119

New laptop with a shiny GeForce RTX 2060 card. I’m not used to loading turns in 5 seconds flat and the scrolling in-game is glorious. First time I’ve splurged for more than a midrange laptop and me likey-likey.

I’ve got a notification of a new envoy in Vilnius - the catapult at Marina completed, finishing that quest. I’ve also got a diplomatic notification from Canada:




Hmmm...thought better than to perhaps turn me off a bit, eh? I accept it but will keep an eye on what they are doing with their units.

Machinery has completed. Castles, Gunpowder, Mass Production, Printing or Square Rigging? Hmmm...Gunpowder. It gives me another military upgrade option and Cleggy is busy for a bit with other builds to worry about Frigates or a Shipyard (though the Shipyard would add 8 to the city). Marina starts a granary since it’s up against its housing limit. Howard has completed its amphitheater and resumes its walls. They’ll be done in three turns and I queue up the granary. It has a new citizen who got put onto the cows. I move it into the Theater Square as a specialist for 2. Once the granary is complete I’ll likely move that citizen back out onto some yields. I also should buy that plains hill and lock down the Entertainment center. I’ll have enough next turn to do that.

Land units get their repositioning in. Quadrireme takes another shot at the barbarian camp and I’ll clear it out next turn. Builder at Auntie Wainwright chops the first forest for 124. That brings the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus up to 211/400. Recalled galleys are just outside my borders. Iapetus Ocean caravel and Artemsia move west and spot the Egyptian galley. I’m out of sight range of the unit so Kaiser, in theory, won’t know I’m watching. The Northern Passage entry that I’m scouting in the east is also clear of units. I check out Fez, it’s losing 6.7 loyalty per turn and is at 56.6. The city will rebel in 9 turns at this rate. I don’t know that I’d be able to take out the city given its walls, at least, not without some frigate firepower. In the south it looks like Woden has taken his caravel past Penguins. That’s fine by me. Move the scout towards shore (disembarkation is the turn after next).

Woden appears to have gone to zero income, at least for a turn. His gold has remained at 58. Canada is in slightly worse shape – they lost 2 last turn. Woden and Ichabod seemed to have done some fighting as they’ve both lost some milpower as well.

Civil Service will complete next turn. Since I haven’t been using it I’ll likely unslot Professional Army and put in Aesthetics for some extra . I’ll have a couple of build decisions next turn at Foggy and Pearl. At Foggy it’s between the Intelligence Agency (14 turns), a library + lighthouse + trader (currently 15 turns). I’ll likely go with the latter since I don’t have an immediate need for a spy or a governor promotion. t Pearl, well, there isn’t much to be done right now with 2.3 per turn. I’ll be buying a granary so that leaves the slow build of a shrine or a lighthouse. It’ll likely be the lighthouse.

[suboptimal]

Turn 120

Civil Service is complete, start Theology. Take out Professional Army, put in Aesthetics. Smiler has grown to 4 population and the monument at Pearl and builder at Foggy are complete. Pearl starts a lighthouse, Foggy starts its library. The new builder is going to plantations at Howard and Marina and then mines at Marina and Smiler (Marina gains a grassland hill in two turns). Cleggy will complete its project next turn and then start two builders. One will farm & whaleboat Auntie Wainwright and the other will tend to a few odd jobs (quarry at Truly, mine at Foggy, crab boat at Compo, perhaps another at Nora Batty and maybe a whale boat at Smiler (it picks up whales next turn).

Out east the galley and swordsman finish off the barbarian camp and I earn three era score. I need three more points and they’ll all be earned with great people. I’m going to position the two swords out here to defog as much of the land as possible. The time for sword & crossbow camps is near. Curiously I haven’t seen a scout or quadrireme from the now-dead camp.

Chola catches up with the caravel and I park them in the bay north of Fez. I have full visibility from the ice caps to the north to the northern border of Fez and will keep watch for any unsavory activity. Over in the Iapetus Ocean it looks like Kaiser doesn’t have Cartography yet as his galley remains at Geneva’s borders. I move the caravel and Artemsia into a similar position at the other end of the passage. Recalled galleys park at their harbors. I bring the caravel from Pearl back north and will send that off to the ocean for additional coverage. While I’m looking at this part of the map the rebellion at Fez has accelerated – it’s now at -8.9 and will rebel in 8 turns.

Compo’s trade route has ended. I don’t need the city to grow further but I’d prefer to have the 2. I shift the galley over to Auntie Wainwright and will send the route to Geneva next turn for 121. Compo can’t get the 12 because most of the route to Geneva is over land. Auntie Wainwright, by using the lake, gets the +100% bonus for landmarks & other such things.

Ichabod earned two Great People last turn - Æthelflæd (via recruitment) and Marco Polo (GMP generation). Timur is up next for generals (1 promotion + 25% experience to a land unit) and Piero De’Bardi for merchants (Gain 200 gold + 1 envoy).

[suboptimal]

Turn 121

The big news is the logistics project at Cleggy has completed and I have a Great Person waiting for me. Check the recruitment screen and it’s Ferdinand Magellan. I only earned 36 Great Engineer points from the project, which combined with the 4 usual points gets me to 93/120. Woden will get his pick of Bi Sheng or James of St. George on his turn. I seem to remember Pingala’s Grants promotion counting in PBEM 15. Dunno if I was mistaken then or mistaken now. Eh, I’ll make do with it. I recruit Magellan, he shows up in Cleggy and the next admiral up is Yi Sun-Sin – that’s the ironclad admiral. I’m 14 turns to getting him, Woden is 13 turns. Gonna need a project (or two) for that one. However, I also need builders. I’ll spit out two of them and then perhaps line up a project here and a second at Foggy if I think I need it.

Theology also completed this turn, but it showed two turns to completion last turn. I queue up Humanism via Guilds and the latter will complete in 7 turns. I leave my policies intact and place my new envoy in Vilnius. That gets me another 4 per turn. There’s also a notificaiton that a barbarian camp has moved in. It’s in the tundra south of Blackhawks so not my problem.

I check loyalty and Wild is suffering a -3 due to amenities. The city is now at a mere +2.2 per turn. Marina grows to 6 population next turn and Pearl follows four turns later. When Guilds completes I’ll promote Amani and that should put Wild into negative loyalty.

Take a look around and it’s a good thing I killed that camp:




Skirmisher! It would have been spawning Medieval units and that would have been no good. Quadrireme and sword attack and it’s redlined. It’ll die next turn unless it runs away. I check the ocean units and see something interesting while moving Hildegard:




The ring road used to be a Brazilian city. I check gossip and the only thing new is that Phoenicia has captured a “lost” city. That’s...cryptic…I also see that Recife is being attacked by Woden as its walls are down to 50%. That would be blow to Ichabod as that Campus is currently 10% of his output.

Reposition units at land and sea, don’t find anything much of interest. I send Ferdinand to Nora Batty – he’ll rendezvous with my southern caravel as it passes in a turn or two. Trader an Auntie Wainwright starts a Geneva route. That’s 12 and 1 more per turn. The builder here Magnuschops a forest for 124. At a natural build rate the Mausoleum is now 15 turns from completion. In two turns I’ll chop a jungle for 6262. That’ll get the city to 4 population and complete the wonder with about 13 overflow. I’ll put that into lighthouse for coastal food. The second jungle chop will get the city to 5 population and most of the way to the lighthouse. By then Cleggy’s builder will be en route for farms and whale boats.

Scout disembarks along the Amazon River – I have a feeling it’s in a dead end of Brazilian borders but that’ll still get me some information on what Ichabod is up to.

I need to keep in mind that in about 18 turns I’ll be losing 40 as my dedication comes to an end. The libraries will help (+8) and I should get going on Universities (+12 available). The Mausoleum will help as well, particularly once Uanti Wainwright’s farms get up and running. The silver lining is that Woden will be in the same boat as me.

This could all be for naught, though:




However, my experience has been that those clocks are sometimes wrong. I had test games where it showed “2 turns to victory” and then the following turn the timer disappeared. He’s currently generating 28 tourism per turn; even with understanding how the math works I’m not sure that 25 turn countdown is accurate. Guess we’ll find out.

One other thing I think I might do:




I could recruit Bhasa next turn for about 300. That’d cause the next writer to be 120 points and I’d have a marginal chance at lapping Ichabod for the next one. It also slows his tourism roll a little bit and would get the pressure on Wild sooner rather than later.